The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 eBook

companionship with Prosperity stupefies a person of
weak judgment. It drives off his judgment like
the wind driving off the autumnal clouds. Companionship
with Prosperity induces him to think,—­I
am possessed of beauty! I am possessed of wealth!
I am high-born! I meet with success in whatever
I undertake! I am not an ordinary human being!—­His
heart becomes intoxicated in consequence of these three
reasons. With heart deeply attached to worldly
possessions, he wastes the wealth hoarded by his sires.
Reduced to want, he then regards the appropriation
of other people’s wealth as blameless. At
this stage, when he transgresses all barriers and
beings to appropriate the possessions of others from
every side, the rulers of men obstruct and afflict
him like sportsmen afflicting with keen shafts a deer
that is espied in the woods. Such a man is then
overwhelmed with many other afflictions of a similar
kind that originate in fire and weapons. Therefore,
disregarding all worldly propensities (such as desire
for children and wives) together with all fleeting
unrealities (such as the body, etc.,) one should,
aided by one’s intelligence, apply proper medicine
for the cure of those painful afflictions. Without
Renunciation one can never attain to happiness.
Without Renunciation one can never obtain what is for
one’s highest good. Without Renunciation
one can never sleep at case. Therefore, renouncing
everything, make happiness thy own. All this was
said to me in past times at Hastinapur by a Brahmana
about what Sampaka had sung. For this reason,
I regard Renunciation to be the foremost of things.’”

SECTION CLXXVII

“Yudhishthira said, ’If any person, desiring
to accomplish acts (of charity and sacrifices), fails
to find (the necessary) wealth, and thirst of wealth
overwhelms him, what is that which he must do for obtaining
happiness?’

“Bhishma said, ’He that regards everything
(viz., joy and sorrow, honour and insult, etc.,)
with an equal eye, that never exerts himself (for
gratifying his desire for earthly possessions), that
practises truthfulness of speech, that is freed from
all kinds of attachment, and that has no desire for
action, is, O Bharata, a happy man. These five,
the ancients say, are the means for the acquisition
of perfect tranquillity or emancipation. These
are called Heaven. These are Religion. These
constitute the highest happiness. In this connection
is cited the old narrative of what Manki had sung,
when freed from attachments, Listen to it, O Yudhishthira!
Desirous of wealth, Manki found that he was repeatedly
doomed to disappointments. At last with a little
remnant of his property he purchased a couple of young
bulls with a yoke for training them (to agricultural
labour). One day the two bulls properly tied
to the yoke, were taken out for training (in the fields).
Shying at the sight of a camel that was lying down
on the road, the animals suddenly ran towards the